FE College Market Research

We have conducted FE college market research for a number of clients and have experience of speaking to students, parents, employers and teachers and lecturers at both the college in question or at local or regional competitors for instance. We carry out research both for colleges themselves, and for other organisations in both the further education sector and from other industries.

Some of the FE Colleges and related bodies our research team have worked with include:

Much of our FE college market research work revolves around understanding issues such as student satisfaction, employee satisfaction, perceptions and branding, new course development, vocational and non-traditional courses of study and how employers perceive colleges local to them.

Research around colleges of further education often involves a wide-array of stakeholders due to their position within the education system and the number of people who may influence whether or not students attend or how a college is perceived. For instance, there are parents of prospective students, the students themselves, head teachers, form tutors and careers advisors within the feeder school, local employers and members of local government – all of whom may need to be consulted on their views on a matter. This often means that we must adopt a mixed methodology approach. In addition, as many FE college market research projects have a regional focus, it is sometimes impractical to utilise an online panel which contains educators from across the UK.

As a result, we have invested in our own in-house, 60 station CATI (computer aided telephone interviewing) facilities and can conduct hundreds of interviews with hard to reach groups every day. In addition, we also have a UK-wide field force, allowing us to carry out face to face interviewing if necessary – for instance we can interview prospective students in-street, and parents of potential students via in-home surveys.

FE College Market Research Case Study

A recent project we completed for a large further education college in the north of England involved interviewing several different groups of stakeholders for which we utilised CATI and postal methodologies. The research looked in to awareness of the college, how it was positioned, its reputation and stakeholders’ likelihood to choose or recommend it.

If you work in further education and would like to take part in market research projects, please join the VoicED Community – you will receive incentives for both yourself and for your college, or our charity partner the Prince’s Teaching Institute if you would prefer.